THE sobbing girlfriend of a murderer was jailed for lying to police by giving him a false alibi.

There were emotional scenes at Liverpool crown court as 21- year-old Nikita Murray was locked up for lying to detectives about the movements of her boyfriend Scott Walker on the night of Tony Bromley's death.

In November last year, Walker and friend Denis Gilboy were jailed for life for hacking 18-year-old Mr Bromley to death with a machete.

The “gangland henchmen” were told they will serve a minimum of 17 years behind bars for the cold-blooded Valentine's Day 2009 murder.

While Gilboy was charged quickly in the wake of the murder, Walker was at large for months until detectives could “break through” his false alibi.

Anne Whyte, prosecuting, told how Murray lied to the police claiming she had been with Walker through the night.

Her lies “drove police off the scent.”

But four months after the killing, officers received vital mobile phone evidence showing Walker had been in the location of the murder at the relevant time, and not with Murray.